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The Iron Claw is a problematic movie. I wanted to really like it more. But Sean Durkins, who wrote and directed the movie, can’t really find the right angle to tell the story. It’s about the Von Erich family of wrestlers told mainly through the eyes of Kevin (Zac Efron in a great reserved role), the second son of Fritz (Holt McCallany) and Doris (Maura Tierney). He’s also the oldest living son of the Von Erichs and it’s this angle where the movie lost on how it is handled.
Fritz, real name Jack Barton Adkisson Sr., was a famous wrestler whose strict, stoic parenting made his four sons compete against themselves for his love and admiration. Fritz and Doris’ eldest son, Jack Jr., died when he was electrocuted and fell in a puddle of water during a freak accident when he was 6. The family tragedy would linger over the Von Erichs for decades. However, Durkin isn’t really sure if he’s making a movie about a family of wrestlers or a family hit hard by deaths and hardships. Luis Valdez was able to have Richie Valens’ fear of flying in the background of La Bamba without having to focus too much on it was foreshadowing of Valens’ fate.
I give Durkin credit for doing his best not to exploit the accident, injuries and deaths that happened to the Von Erich Brothers. At the same time, a good filmmaker should try to explain something to everyone not just those that already know the story. For instance, during a scene where Kerry (Jeremy Allen White) takes off one night on his motorcycle, the next scene is of Kerry getting up in the morning on crutches. His foot amputation is handled with him simply adjusted a prosthetic later in the movie.
In reality, Kerry who was known as The Texas Tornado in the World Wrestling Federation, suffered a dislocated hip and badly injured right leg. It’s been debated that doctors tried to keep from amputating the foot. But others people close him say it’s because Kerry wouldn’t stay off the leg enough to give it time to heal. There’s even debate to this day about who all know if the foot was amputated or not. And worse, Kerry’s downfall into depression, painkiller abuse and eventually suicide is handled so poorly it feels more like an afterthought.
Watching a movie, you shouldn’t have to keep checking Wikipedia to see what happened. I’m almost certain for legal, plot and pacing issues, very little of Kerry’s life is mentioned. There’s no mention of his two children nor his estranged wife. The other two brothers, David (Harris Dickinson) and Mike (Stanley Simons), are played so one-dimensional that they’re mainly around to be used as plot points when their characters die. David reportedly died of a ruptured intestines when he was wrestling in Japan even though there was suspicion it was a painkiller overdose. And Mike just seems to hang around in the background until an accident in the wrestling ring leads to injury and his downfall.
If we had gotten to known the rest of the Von Erich brothers more, their fates would’ve had a more catharsis. I feel White was part of stunt casting and some of his scenes were increased after the popularity of The Bear. But since the main focus is Kevin and the father-son struggle with Fritz, we never do really care about anyone but Kevin, Fritz and Doris. Lily James pops up as Kevin’s wife, Pam. But its the basic wife role in these types of biopics. James has a couple of scenes that she handles well.
McCallany and Tierney have the more difficult role of portraying parental types that are very out-dated but relatable. Fritz expected his boys to be wrestlers like him and they worked their butts off on their ranch. There was no time to slack off and be lazy. Doris is more of the old-time reserved housewife mother who relied on her faith and expectations to get through the day. During a scene where Kevin tries to talk to Doris about how Fritz is too hard on Mike, Doris dismisses it as something that’s not her responsibility as it’s between her husband and son It doesn’t make her a bad mother. It’s just how mothers were expected to behave at the time. Tierney is a wonderful underrated actress who handles the role perfectly. And McCallany has the look and feel of a strict father in Texas during the era.
Unfortunately, the heart of the movie should’ve been the relationship of the brothers who seemed to have a brotherly rivalry. Their parents’ strict upbringing meant they probably played with each other and didn’t have many outside friends. They were expected to go to church a lot, work on the ranch and focus on exercising and wrestling. There’s a scene in which Kevin talks about the death of his brother, Jack, and how it affected him. There’s a sad innocence to the way Kevin says it was like one day, he didn’t have his brother to play with anymore. I wish Durkin had focused more on this. Efron who is built like a brick shithouse for this role manages to show he has the abilities to act well with the right scripts.
Kevin makes sure his children with don’t have the Von Erich surname but Adkisson and at one point, can’t be around his wife and kids out of fear something bad will happen. But these are played so fast and quick, they don’t really add much to the movie. At two hours and 12 minutes with credits, I’d argue this should’ve been maybe a limited series roughly about five or six episodes each about an hour long. That would’ve given the viewer more of a feel of who the Von Erichs were. Maybe Durkin had a longer movie that he just had to whittle down.
With the criticism over the length of Killers of the Flower Moon, it’s a shame filmmakers can’t tell longer stories when they need to be told longer. And Durkin doesn’t have the cred that Martin Scorsese has. This was distributed by A24 and it apparently was meant to be Oscar Bait, but it didn’t get one nomination. It’s possible, they should’ve held it to this year the way they did with Dune Part Two. Durkin might have had more time to work on it rather than cutting it short to get it out before the end of 2023.
What do you think? Please comment.